


The day will come when you won't be

by TheWalkingDino



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: CDC, Major character death - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 03:36:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9952307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingDino/pseuds/TheWalkingDino
Summary: One millisecond, and Rick never had to see the day he wasn't grateful.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters.

_ “There’s your chance, take it.”  _

_ “I’m grateful.”  _

_ “The day will come when you won’t be.”  _

 

Jenner hadn’t lied. The top was still locked up, the glass wasn’t breaking. Rick had a sinking feeling in his gut that this was it, this was the end. Carol’s daughter didn’t deserve to die like this. Carl didn’t deserve to die like this. No one did. 

As Dale and Andrea made their way to the top floor, and they were still trapped, he was sure they were all dead. This was their last moment. This was what  _ hope  _ got for them. Rick was wrong, Shane was right, and they were all going to die. 

Shane was shooting at the glass, Daryl was swinging a pickaxe, T-Dog had a chair, and Rick was holding a hatchet. He wasn’t swinging the hatchet, just holding it as he slumped to the ground against the glass. It clattered to the floor by his side as he looked around the room with empty eyes. Andrea had fallen to her knees, Dale sat by her side. Lori was holding Carl in a tight embrace, tears streaking down their faces. Carol and Sophia stood in a similar fashion, torn apart by their own despair. 

When it came down to mere seconds, everyone  _ gave up _ . Even the strongest fighting spirits gave up, because this was the end. Jenner and Jacqui watched the scene unfold on a screen in those last seconds. They watched every last shred of hope vanish, dissolving into the air like a tablet of medication in a glass of water. 

Lori sat by his side with Carl pulled closely to her. Carl’s hand gripped Rick’s arm. Shane sat on the opposite side of him, cussing under his breath. Carol and Sophia sat beside Lori, Andrea and Dale beside of them. T-Dog was running back down to Jacqui, but he wouldn’t make it. Glenn stood on his knees, pressing his head against the glass as he cried. Daryl sank to his own knees in front of Rick, shooting him a glare that would be the last real thing he ever saw, because this was Rick’s fault. It was Rick’s fault that Daryl had no one to die with. 

They were all going to die, and if it hadn’t been like this it would have been in some other way. A way much worse than this, and Rick saw it all flash before his eyes. He saw a life he would never live, losses he would never experience, people he would never meet all flash before his eyes. 

Sophia would go missing, she’d get bit, she’d turn, and they’d find her in a barn full of walkers. Glenn would fall in love with Maggie. Dale would be disemboweled. Rick would kill Shane. T-Dog would die trying to save someone. Lori would die giving birth to a daughter that might not even be his. Carol would kill two sick people in hopes of saving everyone else, and he would banish her from the prison. Axel would be shot. Merle would come back, only to later die. Hershel would be beheaded in front of his own daughters. Beth would be shot. Tyreese would die after being bitten. Noah would die, ripped apart against the glass of revolving doors. Deanna would die. Jessie and her sons would die. Carl would survive a gunshot to his eye. Maggie would be pregnant. A man named Negan would kill Abraham, then Glenn, and Rick realized that this was the best way. Dying here, at the CDC, without feeling any pain was the way to leave the world, because any other way, the day would come when Rick wouldn’t be grateful. 

Dying that quick and painless death, alongside his friends and his family was what he needed. The day would never come that he wouldn’t be grateful, and in his last moment he certainly was grateful. He was grateful for the death that Jenner provided. 

  
One millisecond, and Rick never had to see the day he wasn’t grateful. 


End file.
